Dear Friend,

Last month I spoke to you about a recent streak of bipartisanship in Congress, which I hope will continue to become more common here in Washington; but I am writing you today to discuss an urgent matter that threatens to shake the foundation of our representative democracy. For more frequent updates, I encourage you to like my Facebook page, follow my Twitter account and subscribe to my YouTube channel.

A couple of years ago, the Supreme Court of the United States dealt a severe blow to our nation’s campaign finance laws, which sought to build and sustain a democracy based on the principle of one-person-one-vote. In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court upended a century of campaign finance laws by equating money with political speech. Just last month, the Supreme Court went a step further in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission by lifting the overall individual contribution limits placed on rich donors to federal election campaigns.

The implications of these rulings are far-reaching and have the potential to affect all Americans, regardless of their political affiliations. In effect, they allow the voices of the many to be drowned out by a few rich campaign donors, who can use their personal fortunes to purchase influence at the expense of the majority of people. This is beyond wrong – it’s dangerous. It threatens to transform our democracy into a system where only the wealthy have a say and citizens of more modest means are left by the wayside. It makes public officials less accountable to their constituents and more beholden to special interests. This is not what our Founding Fathers intended.

To curb this threat and set our nation back on course as one that is responsive to the needs of all its citizens, not just a few, I introduced a proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States. If ratified, my amendment would add a new clause to the Constitution affirming money’s potentially corrupting influence in our democracy and that it is therefore proper for Congress to pass legislation to limit the excessive use of money to buy elections.

Every citizen of the United States has the right to participate freely and equitably in the democratic process. The time has come, however, to affirm this truth and prevent any branch of our government from taking this away from us.

As always, it is an honor to represent you in Congress, and I look forward to your feedback.

Sincerely,

Kurt Schrader
Member of Congress